1.ABC Gushes Over 'Robin Hood' Buffett; Pleads for Higher Taxes
ABC's Good Morning America devolved into outright advocacy on Thursday as the program openly lobbied for more taxes, misled viewers about how much the wealthy pay and passed off an economic advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign as an impartial observer. Correspondent Bianna Golodryga filed a report on liberal billionaire Warren Buffett and his assertion that he pays a lower percentage in taxes than his receptionist. GMA co-host Diane Sawyer turned the story into a class warfare campaign as she promised that the show would be battling "on behalf of fairness in taxes." The host lauded Buffett for taking "your side over taxes and fairness." Additionally, Golodryga fawned over the billionaire for advocating that Congress should retain the estate tax.

2.CBS Again Uniquely Notes Drop in Attacks on U.S. Forces in Iraq
On Thursday, for the second time this week, only the CBS Evening News -- of the three broadcast network evening newscasts -- gave a few seconds to new stats from the Department of Defense with good news on Iraq, this time a 50 percent reduction in IEDs. On Monday, only the CBS Evening News devoted a few seconds to how rocket and mortar attacks on U.S. forces fell in October to the lowest level since February of 2006. And on Thursday night, anchor Katie Couric relayed: "Now to Iraq, which has seen a dramatic decrease in roadside bombs, which account for nearly half of all American deaths there. The U.S. military reported today that in October, 1,560 roadside bombs were either found or exploded in Iraq, that's less than half as many as this past March. A top General says one reason for the decline is that Iran seems to be living up to its promise to stop the flow of arms to Iraqi insurgents."

3.Olbermann Hits Bozell as 'Worst' for Tying Hillary to Filegate
MSNBC Countdown host and Media Matters marionette Keith Olbermann handed MRC founder Brent Bozell his whimsical "Worst Person in the World" honors on Wednesday night for having the bad manners to assert on FNC's Hannity & Colmes Monday night that Hillary Clinton was at the center of the FBI files scandal. Using the same argument and same verbiage as Media Matters -- without mentioning them by name or suggesting he is an anchor-droid programmed nightly by David Brock -- he cited the Clinton-camp argument that if Hillary was not indicted by those hated special prosecutors, therefore it's preposterous she was in any way involved.

4.Behar Upset By Personal Attacks on Hillary But Not on Bush
The View's Joy Behar objects to personal attacks on presidential candidates -- when they don't agree with her. On the November 15 edition of ABC's The View, co-host Joy Behar ranted against John McCain because one audience member called Hillary Clinton a "bitch." But when confronted for her personal attacks on President Bush, as co-host Sherri Shepherd pointed out how "you do personal assaults on President Bush" and wondered "what's the difference?", Behar passively responded: "I don't like him."

ABC's Good Morning America devolved into outright advocacy on Thursday as the program openly lobbied for more taxes, misled viewers about how much the wealthy pay and passed off an economic advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign as an impartial observer. Correspondent Bianna Golodryga filed a report on liberal billionaire Warren Buffett and his assertion that he pays a lower percentage in taxes than his receptionist. GMA co-host Diane Sawyer turned the story into a class warfare campaign as she promised that the show would be battling "on behalf of fairness in taxes." The host lauded Buffett for taking "your side over taxes and fairness." Additionally, Golodryga fawned over the billionaire for advocating that Congress should retain the estate tax.

At no point in the misleading report did any GMA host or reporter mention a fundamental fact: The wealthy already pay a disproportionately high amount of taxes. The top one percent of earners paid 39.4 percent of all federal income taxes in 2005. The top five percent pay almost 60 percent of federal taxes. Golodryga did, however, make time to compare Buffett to Robin Hood, complete with an on-screen graphic, and harass other billionaires over the salaries of their receptionists. Sawyer claimed that most of these wealthy individuals were "hiding" and that GMA would call them on "[Buffett's] behalf." See this Tax Foundation.org report for more on who pays what in income taxes: www.taxfoundation.org[1]

An October 30 CyberAlert article, on an October 29 NBC Nightly News story advocating Buffett's cause, highlighted relevant numbers from the Tax Foundation's report on the IRS data:

But Buffett's anecdotes, about his staff paying a 33 percent rate while he pays only about 18 percent, don't match real tax data for the overall population -- even after tacking on the FICA tax. Unexplored by NBC, how the wealthier pay a much higher income tax rate than those making less and pay a far greater share of income taxes collected than they represent as a percent of all income. In an October 5 Tax Foundation report on 2005 IRS data, Gerald Prante observed: "The tax code still remains highly progressive. The average tax rate in 2005 ranges from 2.98 percent of income for the bottom half of the earning spectrum [$31,000 and below] to 23.13 percent for the top 1 percent [over $365,000]." Adding on FICA, that still leaves the bottom half paying about ten percent. And thanks to the Bush tax cuts, particularly the expanded child credits, more families pay no income taxes.

Golodryga reported Buffett's argument, that the percentage of his federal taxes, 18 percent, is lower than the percentage of his receptionist, 33 percent. However, she didn't mention that capital gains, which is where Buffett made most of his money, are taxed at a lower rate. Larry Elder, in an article on Townhall.com, exposed both the billionaire's leftist affiliations and his fuzzy math:

Buffett says he earned $46 million in 2006, with a tax rate of 17.7 percent -- all, says Buffet, without attempting to avoid paying higher taxes. But his income clearly places him in the highest federal income tax bracket -- 35 percent -- but the same "non-avoidance" tax rules allow ample deductions and credits. Surely a man like Buffet can claim buckets-full, to say nothing of possible business losses and capital gains inherent in his line of work. So he probably reached the 17.7 percent rate without any monkey business. Fair enough. Whip out your calculator. First, Buffett, on his $46 million a year, paid -- at his 17.7 percent rate -- over $8 million in taxes.

For more, including Elder's analysis of the hypothetical secretary, go here: www.townhall.com[4]

Golodryga is also the same reporter who claimed on Monday that high gas prices were going to cancel Christmas and stop one Phoenix man from being able to go to church. (Perhaps Buffett should donate some money to him?) See the November 13 CyberAlert for more: www.mrc.org[5]

Of course, neither Mr. Elder, nor anyone with a contrary point of view was allowed to appear on GMA. Instead, ABC featured Golodryga calling other wealthy men and attempting to harangue them about their own secretaries. The only criticism of Buffett came in the form of text graphics that appeared onscreen. Even then, Golodryga complained, "So why are they all ganging up on him?"

To answer this question, she spoke with the "tax truth squad." One of these individuals was none of than Gene Sperling, the National Economic Advisor to Bill Clinton and a supporter of Hillary's 2008 campaign. GMA ignored that relevant point and simply identified the leftist group where he's a Senior Fellow, the Center For American Progress. (It's liberal connections also went unmentioned.) At this point, the segment openly advocated for keeping the death tax, or, as liberals call it, the estate tax. Columbia University professor Norman Bartczak, another member of the "tax truth squad," claimed, "If you asked most Americans if they could pay their taxes after they die, they'd all be happy to do so." However, he didn't mention that this tax is levied on people who have already paid taxes on their assets.

Summing up the leftist bent of the piece, co-host Robin Roberts marveled at what a "good guy" Buffett is. Apparently, in the mind of ABC hosts and reporters, "good" means liberal. And anyone who disagrees with the "good" position isn't worth mentioning. A transcript of the segment, which aired at 7:14am on November 15, follows,

7:00am tease, DIANE SAWYER: And also, how about this? Billionaire businessman Warren Buffett says that he pays a smaller percentage of his taxes than his receptionist does. Is it fair? And he's offered a million dollars to other billionaires if he's wrong. The challenge. ROBIN ROBERTS: So, we decided to call some other members of the billionaire club to see what they say. [Montage of photos of Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Bloomberg, Marc Cuban and Henry Kravis appear onscreen.] And the results? Well, let's just say we heard a lot of kaching, little dial tones when we tried to reach out to them. SAWYER: It's true, but we're on the chase there on behalf of fairness in taxes there.

7:14am, SAWYER: Well, a billionaire has taken your side over taxes and fairness. The country's second wealthiest man Warren Buffett, was on Capitol Hill yesterday. And he wants to know why he pays a smaller percentage in taxes than his receptionist. He's even offered $1 million to any of his billionaire pals who prove him wrong about their percentage and their receptionist's percentages. But, mostly, they're in hiding over the issue. So, We decided to make some phone calls too on his behalf. Bianna Golodryga has been on the story. Bianna? BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Good morning. Imagine a billionaire paying less than his receptionist, as far as percentages go. Buffett wanted to know, who hands over more of their income to the IRS, a billionaire or receptionist? So, he did a simple experiment, using himself and his staff as guinea pigs. He compared how much he pays, in terms of a percentage of his salary, to what his employees pay. And what Buffett uncovered touched off a battle of the billionaires. WARREN BUFFETT: Equality of opportunity has been on the decline. ABC GRAPHIC: Taxing The Rich: Warren Buffett: "Tax Me More" GOLODRYGA: Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the second richest man in America has a bone to pick with the tax collector. WARREN BUFFETT (BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC.): Frankly, an economy where my receptionist pays a lot higher tax rate than I do does not strike me as a just economy. GOLODRYGA: He crunched the numbers. Buffett pays 18 percent to the feds. His receptionist, like the rest of his staff, pays nearly twice that, 33 percent. A lopsided equation that put Buffett in a Robin Hood frame of mind. [On-screen graphic of Buffett as Robin Hood.] BUFFETT: I see nothing wrong with those who have been blessed by this society to give a larger portion of their income to the society than somebody that's working very, very hard just to make ends meet. GOLODRYGA: Now he's challenging the elite members of the Forbes 400 list to do the calculations for themselves. Take their tax rates and compare it to that of their receptionist. It's causing quite a stir among Buffett's fellow billionaires. As we found out when we offered to help them do the math. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (ONSCREEN GRAPHIC SAYS MICHAEL DELL AND THE WORDS DECLINED APPEAR OVER HIS FACE): We must regretfully decline. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (ONSCREEN GRAPHIC SAYS GEORGE STEINBRENNER AND THE WORDS DECLINED APPEAR OVER HIS FACE): Unfortunately, he has decided to decline. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (ONSCREEN GRAPHIC SAYS GEORGE KAISER AND THE WORDS DECLINED APPEAR OVER HIS FACE): He'd like to decline the interview. Thank you anyway. GOLODRYGA: More than 25 billionaires from Turner to Murdoch, Bloomberg to Cuban, declined to talk. But some of them did sound off to Forbes magazine, suggesting Buffett should "stick to his area of expertise" [Attributed to Kenneth Fisher], calling his ideas "grossly simplistic" [Attributed to Randal J. Kirk], even speculating that maybe Buffett's "going senile." [Attributed to Phillip Ruffin] So why are they all ganging up on him? WENDY BOUNDS (WALL STREET JOURNAL): I think that the worry is, they go on the record, other people, which other people do, that it puts them in a position to having to cheer lead for something they're not entirely sure they're comfortable with. GOLODRYGA: We decided to call in the tax truth squad. What about his theory a billionaire should pay a higher tax rate than a receptionist? Is that just grossly simplistic? PROFESSOR NORMAN BARTCZAK (COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY): I don't think it's a gross over simplification at all. GENE SPERLING (CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS): The richest families in our country pay a lower tax rate than the people who take care of their children, who teach in their schools, or who would put out a fire if their house were to start to burn. GOLODRYGA: And what about that 55 percent estate tax billionaires pay when they die? Doesn't that level the playing field? BARTCZAK: I think if you asked most Americans if they could pay their taxes after they die, they'd all be happy to do so. GOLODRYGA: And later this week, Congress could vote to repeal the estate tax. A post mortem tax relief Buffett says is virtually worthless. BUFFETT: You would have to attend 200 funerals to be at one at which the decedent's estate owed a tax. GOLODRYGA: Buffett says if any billionaire out there can do the math in his own office and prove him wrong then Buffett will donate $1 million to the charity of their choice. So far, three of his closest friends have taken him up on the deal and no one has been given the million dollars just yet. He is and you know what? We were talking about hat estate tax? He doesn't actually have to pay a big one because, of course, he's giving the majority of his money away to charity. ROBERTS: He's a good guy. All right, Bianna. Thank you so much.

On Thursday, for the second time this week, only the CBS Evening News -- of the three broadcast network evening newscasts -- gave a few seconds to new stats from the Department of Defense with good news on Iraq, this time a 50 percent reduction in IEDs. On Monday, only the CBS Evening News devoted a few seconds to how rocket and mortar attacks on U.S. forces fell in October to the lowest level since February of 2006. And on Thursday night, anchor Katie Couric relayed: "Now to Iraq, which has seen a dramatic decrease in roadside bombs, which account for nearly half of all American deaths there. The U.S. military reported today that in October, 1,560 roadside bombs were either found or exploded in Iraq, that's less than half as many as this past March. A top General says one reason for the decline is that Iran seems to be living up to its promise to stop the flow of arms to Iraqi insurgents."

For details, check a November 15 article from DOD's American Forces Press Service: "IED Attacks Down Significantly; Enemy Being Pushed North, General Says." See: www.defenselink.mil[6]

Or the AP's dispatch, "US general: Roadside bombs down in Iraq," as posted on Yahoo: news.yahoo.com[7]

A November 13 CyberAlert item recounted CBS's Monday night brief: "Anchor Katie Couric read this short item on her November 12 broadcast: 'Turning to Iraq now and another sign that violence there is decreasing. In October, insurgent rocket and mortar attacks fell to their lowest level in nearly two years. The U.S. military reported today there were 369 of those attacks last month. Rocket and mortar attacks peaked in June when there were more than a thousand.'" See: www.mrc.org[8]

The CBS Evening News, however, remains the only broadcast network evening newscast to not air, in the past month, a story from Iraq about improving living conditions there. For details, check the November 15 CyberAlert item: "NBC Catches Up With ABC to Highlight Safer, Better Life in Iraq." Go to: www.mrc.org[9]

MSNBC Countdown host and Media Matters marionette Keith Olbermann handed MRC founder Brent Bozell his whimsical "Worst Person in the World" honors on Wednesday night for having the bad manners to assert on FNC's Hannity & Colmes Monday night that Hillary Clinton was at the center of the FBI files scandal. Using the same argument and same verbiage as Media Matters -- without mentioning them by name or suggesting he is an anchor-droid programmed nightly by David Brock -- he cited the Clinton-camp argument that if Hillary was not indicted by those hated special prosecutors, therefore it's preposterous she was in any way involved: "Our winner: Brent Bozell, Media Research Council, goes on the Hannity and Colmes fiction hour, again, to announce about Senator Clinton, quote: 'Now we know and we know -- we knew that she was in the middle of things, we knew that she was behind the whole FBI-gate.' Yeah, in 2000, the last Whitewater independent counsel, Robert Ray, wrapped up six years of investigations and announced that, quote: 'No senior White House official or First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton engaged in criminal conduct to obtain through fraudulent means derogatory information about former White House staff. No senior White House official or Mrs. Clinton was involved in requesting FBI background reports for improper partisan advantage.' Independent counsel Robert W. Ray was a Republican and Brent Bozell is a guy who makes stuff up. Brent Bozell, today's Worst Person in the World!"

Should one think that perhaps Olbermann is not a serious anchorman when he refers to Bozell as head of the Media Research "Council," know that Keith seems to always make that factual error when bashing Brent. (I'm sensing the vibe, "I'm not making a stupid mistake, I'm brilliantly telegraphing that I think your group's a right-wing joke.")

It would seem like a good argument for the lefties to cite an independent counsel document to absolve Hillary of any involvement in the FBI files scandal, even if it's odd considering that Hillary always vehemently opposed the idea, and regularly trained her corps of attack dogs on independent counsels as a shamelessly partisan cog of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Clearly, Robert Ray's (and Kenneth Starr's) office investigated the FBI files matter and brought no criminal charges. But as usual, the Clintons always suggest that if they're not indicted, then they have "done nothing wrong." They would say that even if they were indicted.

But when special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald declined to indict Karl Rove in the Valerie Plame matter, Media Matters certainly didn't find that Rove was then free of suspicion. Instead, they demanded the removal of his security clearance. Would Olbermann suggest that since Fitzgerald didn't indict Rove, his script writers at Media Matters were "making stuff up" about Rove's role in Plamegate?

I'd say Ray's text dismissing culpability in the FBI files matter seems to go beyond the legal questions to suggesting that there was somehow no scandal or wrongdoing anywhere in the chain of acquisition and archiving of Republican FBI files by the Clinton team. But then consider that this same Robert Ray also concluded that Hillary Clinton provided "factually false" testimony in the Travel Office case -- even though he declined to prosecute it as "beyond a reasonable doubt." (Media Matters knows that, but never considers the immense political pressure brought by the Clintons and their allies to get Ray to wrap it up, up, up in 2000 and go home.)

If Clintonistas think that Rove shouldn't have a security clearance for their feeling that he violated Plame's privacy and CIA employment, then why would it seem odd for Hillary's opponents to suggest that her suspected role in violating the privacy of Republican White House employees, or her providing "factually false" answers to a grand jury, suggest she shouldn't be president?

Finally, consider that when Team Clinton says there's no "evidence" of a Clinton scandal, the destruction or disappearance of evidence will always by suspected by conservatives. As a little demonstration of how the network news wasn't interested in pursuing the Filegate case back in 1996, consider this old MRC report: "On September 25, 1996, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) revealed a six-month gap in the log which listed who at the White House was accessing FBI background files on Republican White House employees. The Washington Times bannered the news across page one the next day. On October 4, Sen. Hatch released the deposition of White House aide Mari Anderson before the Judiciary Committee. Anderson verified that pages of the log used to record the taking of FBI files were missing. Anderson also asserted, contradicting White House aide Craig Livingstone's assurances, that Livingstone knew the Clinton White House was procuring the FBI files of Republicans. Even The Washington Post put this story on its front page the next day." See: www.mrc.org[11]

Network coverage? One brief on Good Morning America (and we found two briefs on CNN).

The View's Joy Behar objects to personal attacks on presidential candidates -- when they don't agree with her. On the November 15 edition of ABC's The View, co-host Joy Behar ranted against John McCain because one audience member called Hillary Clinton a "bitch." But when confronted for her personal attacks on President Bush, as co-host Sherri Shepherd pointed out how "you do personal assaults on President Bush" and wondered "what's the difference?", Behar passively responded: "I don't like him."

The co-hosts were discussing the recent "controversy" of an enthusiastic McCain supporter calling Senator Clinton a "bitch." Whoopi Goldberg surprisingly defended McCain, because there is not much else he could do. Behar responded by placing all of the blame on McCain because he did not lecture the woman on the spot.

The discussion led to this exchange with Sherri Shepherd calling out Joy Behar on her many personal attacks against President Bush.

[This item was adopted from the NewsBusters post by Justin McCarthy: newsbusters.org[12] ]

The transcript from November 15:

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: So now, let's talk about John McCain. Shall we? This has been all over the news. A woman at a John McCain rally said to him, "how do we beat the bitch?" JOY BEHAR: Some woman. GOLDBERG: A woman. You know, just like any of us. Not you, of course, sir. But you know, the women. As we would say about whoever we were talking about in wherever we were. It wasn't a broadcast thing. Someone was filming. Okay. He kind of looked a little startled and kind of laughed a little bit, because it took him by surprise. Then a guy said "I didn't know you were talking about my wife" and made all those dumb jokes. Then he said "that's an interesting question" and went on to say "I have a lot of respect for Hillary Clinton" and blah blah. Now everyone is up in arms with him because they feel he should have said to this woman "do not refer to Mrs. Clinton as this way." So I say, the question for me is, having watched him have to deal with yet another woman, his mother, who made a comment about Mitt Romney, my take- JOY BEHAR: What did she say about Mitt Romney? GOLDBERG: I don't remember, but it wasn't good and he had to take care of it. And what I thought I saw on his face was, another one. I have to do this again. Now, we say the word all of the time. But people were apparently very up in arms that he didn't pull out his yardstick and say "don't say those words about this woman who's running." Now, if a man said it, if it wasn't a woman, I'd say -- can you say that? You'll beep me, right?

[...]

BEHAR: But he's a man. It's different when a man uses it. GOLDBERG: But he didn't use it. He did not say it. A woman said it, asked him, "how do we beat the bitch?" And everyone's angry at him for not saying "don't you say that about Hillary Clinton." SHERRI SHEPHERD: And I think that we are getting so desensitized because look how everybody talks about President Bush. Whether you agree with him or not, the position of the president is a sacred position, I think, and everybody calls this man an idiot. You talk about him. So why you getting mad when somebody goes how do we beat the bitch? GOLDBERG: You're missing the point. Nobody is getting mad. SHEPHERD: There were some people were in arms. I'm not saying you. GOLDBERG: And I don't understand that. They were up in arms for not correcting her. SHEPHERD: Well, that's what I'm saying. Everyone's up in arms. JOY BEHAR: It would have been nice. He is a gentleman, usually, McCain. It would have been nice for him to say "Well, you know, I think you're referring to my opponent and I don't particularly like the way you're refer to her." That's all. It would have been nice and respectful to say that. That's all. As far as Bush is concerned, I mean, I respect the office of the presidency. I just don't respect him. [Applause] SHEPHERD: What I'm saying is the same could be said, she felt Hillary Clinton was a bitch. And so she said it. BEHAR: No, that's a personal assault on the woman. SHEPHERD: You do personal assaults on President Bush. BEHAR: Yes, I do. SHEPHERD: So what's the difference? What's the difference? BEHAR: The difference is that I don't like him. [Laughter] SHEPHERD: What's the difference? She didn't like her. GOLDBERG: And this woman doesn't like her. But I still don't understand what people wanted him to do. You're saying he should have said "don't say this," but the truth of the matter is we walk around doing it all the time and the only way we get away with it is there's no cameras with us. If no one had seen it on camera, would people have been as mad? BEHAR: Probably not. GOLDBERG: I don't think so either. SHEPHERD: And also, John McCain is a human being. Sometimes you get caught off guard. Sometimes people say things and you don't come back the way people think you're supposed. BEHAR: At the end of the day, it's going to work in favor of Mrs. Clinton because she gets the sympathy vote. Women don't like it. That's the truth. And so more women will vote for her because of that, I think. SHEPHERD: Because she got called a bitch? BEHAR: Yes. They don't like it. It's very sexist to call a woman a bitch when you're a man. We could say it to eachother. SHEPHERD: But a man didn't do it. GOLDBERG: I need to really make this very clear. BEHAR: All right. It's mind charging by proxy syndrome, alright? She says bitch and then he agrees and laughs, that means he's calling her ipso facto. GOLDBERG: No Don't do that. Joy, you can't do that. BEHAR: Almost. GOLDBERG: We don't want to get him all wrapped up in that. What I was trying to say is people say stuff all the time and I don't know if everybody has to always accommodate everybody else's political correctness. Because John McCain is a good guy. He's a very smart guy. And, you know, we say this word all the time. I don't know how much mail comes in about us saying it. It would be interesting to find out. BEHAR: I think it's when you're friendly with a person, you can say it. We perceive them as being as being adversaries. And therefore, it did not seem appropriate. I think that's the bottom line of it. JESSICA SIMPSON: It brings more attention to it. It brings more attention to it. SHEPHERD: It was not John McCain's fault that the lady called Hillary Clinton a bitch. BEHAR: No, but he responded in a way that was joining her. SHEPHERD: He's a human being tough. GOLDBERG: No, I don't agree, no. BEHAR: Look, I'm the not sending him to the electric chair.

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